Don’t exchange violence with developmental projects –DCEs

The District Chief Executives for Talensi-Nabdam and the Bongo Districts in the Upper East Region, Mr Anaba Nabila and Mr Francis Asampana Akurugu, respectively, have advised Ghanaians not to exchange violence with the numerous developmental projects going on in the country before, during and after the December elections.

They made the statement at separate durbars of Chiefs organized by the National Commission for Civic Education (NCCE) on the theme, “Political Tolerance for Peaceful and Non-Violence Election 2008” in Tongo and Bongo in the Region.

Both DCEs asked the electorate to consider the number of development projects which often came to a halt as a result of conflicts and violence, and appealed particularly to the youth not to do anything that would mar the forthcoming elections.

They noted that it was the people who stood to lose when violent conflicts started, as it would scare donors away from undertaking developmental projects.

Mr Nabila cited a lot of developmental projects currently going on the Talensi-Nabdam district, including a number of school buildings, dinning hall for the Gbeogo School for the Deaf, the construction of the Winkongo and Gbeogo dams, the Tongo market, road networks among others.

Mr Nabila said political tolerance and peaceful election for the 2008 election was a shared responsibility of all Ghanaians, and stressed the need for all stakeholders including chiefs, the Electoral Commission, Media, the Security forces among others, to play impartial role towards ensuring peaceful elections.

He said Ghana had chalked a lot of successes in the field of multi-party democracy, which should not be destroyed but rather natured well to grow.

The paramount chiefs of Bongo and Tongo Traditional Areas, Naba Baba Salifu Aleemyarum and Naba Sabaalug Nan-Mal-teng stressed that they would not sit on the fence and allow the election to be marred by violence, and sounded a warning to the people in their area of jurisdiction, especially the youth to distance themselves from acts of violence.

They appealed to their sub chiefs to avoid active politics and accept all political parties into their fold with neutrality and impartiality.

The Paramount Chiefs asked political party leaders to give due respect to chiefs whenever they were entering their areas of jurisdiction to preach their messages.